The successful commercialization of fuel cells will depend on the achievement of competitive system costs and efficiencies. System cost directly impacts the capital equipment component of cost of electricity (COE) and is a major contributor to the O and M component. The replacement costs for equipment (also heavily influenced by stack life) is generally a major contributor to O and M costs. In this project, they worked with the SECA industrial teams to estimate the impact of general manufacturing issues of interest on stack cost using an activities-based cost model for anode-supported planar SOFC stacks with metallic interconnects. An earlier model developed for NETL for anode supported planar SOFCs was enhanced by a linkage to a performance/thermal/mechanical model, by addition of Quality Control steps to the process flow with specific characterization methods, and by assessment of economies of scale. The 3-dimensional adiabatic performance model was used to calculate the average power density for the assumed geometry and operating conditions (i.e., inlet and exhaust temperatures, utilization, and fuel composition) based on publicly available polarizations curves. The SECA team provided guidance on what manufacturing and design issues should be assessed in this Phase I demonstration of cost modeling capabilities. They considered the impact of the following parameters on yield and cost: layer thickness (i.e., anode, electrolyte, and cathode) on cost and stress levels, statistical nature of ceramic material failure on yield, and Quality Control steps and strategies. In this demonstration of the capabilities of the linked model, only the active stack (i.e., anode, electrolyte, and cathode) and interconnect materials were included in the analysis. Factory costs are presented on an area and kilowatt basis to allow developers to extrapolate to their level of performance, stack design, materials, seal and system configurations, and internal corporate overheads and margin goals.
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